ILL.- A man said: One morning I went out to start my car to go to church. I had a flat tire. Luckily, I had a spare tire. I changed the tire quickly and was on my way. But I didn’t think to drop the spare off to be fixed. I said, "I’ll get around to it."

Within five days I went out to my car to go to school. I had another flat tire. Only this time I had no spare! I had to roll it to nearest service station and wait while it was fixed.

When something breaks, fix it now. Some things need to be fixed right now!

It’s called preparation. Prepare for action. Prepare for breakdowns. Prepare for flat tires. In fact, it’s better to check your tires regularly and then perhaps you won’t experience a flat tire.

If a person keeps their car maintenanced, etc. then hopefully, it won’t break down in times of stress, bad weather, etc. And if a person keeps their faith maintenanced then it, too, won’t let them down in times of difficulty and stress. PREPARATION IS THE KEY.

ILL.- In the 1969 movie "PAINT YOUR WAGON," Lee Marvin plays a drunk named Ben Rumstead. During the closing scene, Ben Rumstead is standing in the rain on a muddy street talking with the proprietor of a local store. The store owner looks at the passing wagons, loaded with people and furniture moving out of town and says, "There are two kinds of people in this world. There are those who move on and those that stay. Ain’t that the truth, Ben Rumstead?"

"No, that ain’t the truth," Ben Rumstead replies, with a swagger enlarged by the half-empty bottle in his hand. "There are two kinds of people in this world. Them that is going someplace and them that is going no place. That’s the truth."

It’s true that some people are going somewhere and some are going nowhere. This is especially true spiritually. Many people are going nowhere spiritually.

There are "doers" and there are those who do little in regard to the really important matters of life. I don’t know if it is because they don’t care or perhaps they don’t think they can make a difference in their own lives or the lives of others. Either way, doing nothing will get a person nowhere and fast!

ILL.- The Boy Scout motto is what? BE PREPARED. Be prepared for what? For anything that might come our way in life. And to me, there is only way to be prepared and that’s in the Lord! To be prepared for anything that life throws at us we must be in the Lord and continually seek His will. OUR FATHER KNOWS BEST. The best place to be and the best preparation is in the Lord!